Covid Classics: And I Would Have Gotten Away With It Too…If It Weren’t For You Meddling Kids!
Ah, Scoobs and the gang. Many a great plot were foiled by 2 dogs and 4 teenagers. In the movies – but not the Scooby Doo movies, because, yeesh – many a great film has featured a kid in the middle of the action.
Below are 6 of those films, including which member of the Mystery Machine gang each kid shares a connection with.
A shy poor high school student takes a job watching a blind ex military vet as he holidays in New York City for the weekend.
Why It’s Good
I get it. Al Pacino’s performance in this movie has been GIF’ed, soundboarded, and mimic’ed over and over again. But every minute he’s on the screen, the movie comes alive, as you have no idea where Pacino’s gonna go next with his character. Playing off of him nicely is a relatively meek Chris O’Donnell, whose career launched into stardom with this movie. As much as people lambast the Academy for not giving him an Oscar earlier, I’m glad Pacino got one here, as I could have watched hours of this character it sucked me in so much. HOOOAHHH!
The Scoob Connection
Zoinks! O’Donnell is a lot like Shaggy, scared to death half the time, but rising to the occasion for a friend in need.
Investigating a series of strange murders in his small town, a police officer joins forces with a scientist only to realize the murderers are stranger and more terrifying than he thought.
Why It’s Good
The atomic bomb opened a whole new world of storytelling (Godzilla was also released this year!). In this case, similar to Jaws, the creatures the movie uses were so problematic that the director was forced to get creative to make Them! scarier by using fog/darkness to scare the bejesus out of everyone. The movie is also anchored by strong acting, rare for genre movies at the time. The movie is so good Jordan Peele used it as inspiration for Us.
The Scoob Connection
The poor comatose girl might have well have said Jinkies like Velma when she rises up and gives everyone the clues to what is going on before finally resting peacefully.
Two young men murder someone, and place the body in relative plain view at a party, hoping to see if they can get away with their crime.
Why It’s Good
It’s Alfred Hitchcock, so…of course it’s bloody good! The master of suspense turns the whodunit on it’s head, showing us the murder right away. So as the audience, we are on the edge of our seat seeing if the impressionable Farley Grainger and John Dall are going to give away what they’ve done to their professor who they admire, played by Jimmy Stewart. Set entirely in two rooms, Hitchcock weaves us in and out of various conversations like the pro he is, amping up suspense just with words and looks, like only a master could execute.
The Scoob Connection
Fred, like John Dall’s character, envisions himself a smart man, not realizing that his own hubris leads him astray on the case.
After a summer lovin, an exchange student and greaser go back to their high school cliques, seeing if their love can endure.
Why It’s Good
The joys of being young. Grease’s cup runneth over with those great youthful memories of a first love, and hanging out with your buds and gal pals, going to a high school dance, etc. It’s also really funny now because half the characters are 40ish playing 18, meaning you might raise an eyebrow at a “pregnancy scare.” But what sucks you back in are those catchy songs, beaten into your head by the radio, that you can’t help but hum along to Summer Nights or You’re the On that I Want.
The Scoob Connection
Everyone in this movie is like Scooby, ready to have a blast, eat a little bit, and dance the night away!
A spacecraft goes to investigate a planet where a group of scientists went missing years earlier.
Why It’s Good
Another of the early influential sci-fil films: George Lucas stole this movie’s designs for some of the Empire’s architecture. Using the loose plot of the Tempest, the astronauts go deeper and deeper into the planet, discovering all sorts of strange, and sometimes dangerous realizations about what happened to their fallen friends. There’s an amazing robot character that served clearly as an R2D2 or C3PO forerunner. Also Walter Pidgeon’s Edward Morbius (amazing character name) fulfills those great sci-fi roles: enigmatic, half dangerous, half fascinating.
The Scoob Connection
Morbius’s daughter, played by Anne Francis, is a badass hottie, very much the Daphne of this movie.
A private investigator is hired to investigate a rich girl’s gambling debts, but the family’s older sister takes an unusually keen interest in the case.
Why It’s Good
One of the quintessential film noirs of early Hollywood. Why? Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, hands down. Two perfect actors for the noir genre, both play their parts amazingly, fulfilling the sexy dangerous vibe that great noir actors need. The plot is really hard to follow, but it doesn’t really matter, because the movie is so much fun and bullets or double crosses are on the way every 10 minutes.
The Scoob Connection
Bacall’s younger sister very much is a Scrappy Doo, ultra confident in herself but equally delusional/lacking self-awareness.
